Restaurants push for beer, wine to go

Latest lobby hoping to crack open liquor sales

The server removes a crumbridden plate. Cheeks flushed and belly bursting, you ask: “Can I get a six-pack of that local brew to go?”

Whether the beer arrives with your bill depends largely on which province you call home.

In B.C., you would have a choice of beers, ciders and wines — local, foreign and even from other provinces, depending on the pub. In Nova Scotia, you could take home some of the restaurant’s own brew. In Alberta, you would get your beer but only if you were in a hotel bar or at a brewer-owned pub. In Saskatchewan, you could even take a mickey of gin with your after-dinner mint.

Manitoba, Newfoundland and Quebec would also have something to spike the doggie bag. But in Ontario, you’d come up dry.

Now Restaurants Canada wants to change that by bringing what’s known as “off-sales” to the province, allowing licensed restaurants to sell beer, wine and cider to patrons who want to take it home. They can eat first or just pop to the pub if they run out when company is over — or so the restaurateurs hope.

As former TD head Ed Clark leads a sweeping review of government assets, from Hydro One to the LCBO, bars are the latest lobby group hoping to crack open the province’s cloistered liquor sales.

Craft brewers have already asked to be allowed to sell each other’s beers and open up sales locations off-site of their breweries.

They argue it would allow them to create an Ontarioowned co-op-style alternative to the Beer Store.

Vinters would also like to sell competitors’ wines, again in an effort to build market share and turn more people onto local vintages.

Mr. Clark’s final report, which will include recommendations to modernize the LCBO and wring more revenue out of the foreign-owned Beer Store, is expected this month. There are a lot of ways he could liberalize Ontario’s outdated alcohol sales.

“Restaurants Canada members are big fans of craft beer, and they provide a place for brewers to introduce new and limited-run products,” said James Rilett, Restaurants Canada’s vice-president Ontario. “Providing a retail outlet for the products is a natural step that has been successful in other provinces.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne has already promised to allow some grocery stores to sell beer and wine, but Mr. Rilett argues that pubs and restaurants are even better placed to serve thirsty Ontarians.

“Unlike grocery stores, restaurant staff are already trained to responsibly sell alcohol products. It only makes sense that they would be the first retail option to be considered,” he said.

In B.C., “anyone can walk in right off the street,” for a six-pack or a bottle of wine to take home, said Kyle Polanski, manager of The Cove pub in Vancouver.

The “same standards are in effect” as serving someone in a store, he said: If a customer is already too intoxicated, he doesn’t get served. If she looks underage, she gets carded.

In the end, Mr. Polanski said, off-sales represent only a “small fraction” of the bar’s business, but, as a neighbourhood pub, the foot traffic could entice someone to come back for a meal another time.

“It’s not complicated at all,” he said. “Just another way to get people in off the street.”